Posted by Aziza
What is the time?
كم الساعة؟
It is half past ten
الساعة العاشرة والنصف
Telling the time in Arabic is very easy. We use ordinal numbers with hours, except one o’clock, as follows:
|
One O’clock
|
الساعة الواحدة
|
|
Two O’clock
|
الساعة الثانية
|
|
Three O’clock
|
الساعة الثالثة
|
|
Four O’clock
|
الساعة الرابعة
|
|
Five O’clock
|
الساعة الخامسة
|
|
Six O’clock
|
الساعة السادسة
|
|
Seven O’clock
|
الساعة السابعة
|
|
Eight O’clock
|
الساعة الثامنة
|
|
Nine O’clock
|
الساعة التاسعة
|
|
Ten O’clock
|
الساعة العاشرة
|
|
Eleven O’clock
|
الساعة الحادية عشرة
|
|
Twelve O’clock
|
الساعة الثانية عشرة
|
To say ‘past’ in Arabic, we use ‘و‘ which comes after the hour, so half past two in Arabic would literally be ‘two o’clock and a half’ الساعة الثانية والنصف
|
past
|
و
|
|
Five past
|
وخمس دقائق
|
|
Ten past
|
وعشر دقائق
|
|
Quarter past
|
والربع
|
|
Twenty past
|
والثلث
|
|
Half past
|
والنصف
|
To say ’to’ in Arabic, we use ‘إلا which comes after the hour, so ‘quarter to three’ in Arabic would literally be ‘three o’clock less a quarter’ الساعة الثالثة إلا الربع
|
To
|
إلا
|
|
Five to
|
إلا خمس دقائق
|
|
Ten to
|
إلا عشر دقائق
|
|
Quarter to
|
إلا الربع
|
|
Twenty to
|
إلا الثلث
|
Now, can you make these expressions in Arabic?
It’s five o’clock.
It’s half past ten.
It’s five to six.
Posted by Aziza
I hope you have had a chance to practice changing the sentences in the previous post into dual and then into plural. In this post, I provide the answers to the exercise set in the previous post. You can check your answers against the sentences below.
Dual
1. هذان هما المهندسان المصريان اللذان يعملان في شركة كويتية.
2. تعرفت على صديقتين تدرسان العلوم السياسية في جامعتي.
3. أنتما الموظفان الجديدان ومكتبكما بجانب مكتبي.
4. رأيت الولدين الصغيرين وهما يلعبان الكرة مع صديقهما.
5. هذان هما الكتابان الشيقان اللذان ألفهما الكاتبان العربيان المعروفان.
Plural
1. هؤلاء هم المهندسون المصريون الذين يعملون في شركة كويتية.
2. تعرفت على صديقات يدرسن العلوم السياسية في جامعتي.
3. أنتم الموظفون الجدد ومكتبكم بجانب مكتبي.
4. رأيت الأولاد الصغار وهم يلعبون الكرة مع صديقهم.
5. هذه هي الكتب الشيقة التي ألفها الكُتاب العرب المعروفون.
Posted by Aziza
In this post, I offer you a chance to practice much of the knowledge you have about dual and plural agreement and to practice the information presented earlier about agreement and about the case marking system. Today, you are asked to change the sentences below into dual, and then to change the same sentences into plural. Try to think about the reason for choosing suffixes and forms you intend to use, e.g. why use (صديقان) and not (صديقين). Try also to remember what we said about broken plurals and non-human plurals. To help you choose the forms, I translate the sentences below; however, if you can translate the sentences yourself, it will be much better. Enjoy the exercise, and wait for the next post to get the answers!
1. هذا هو المهندس المصري الذي يعمل في شركة كويتية.
“This is the Egyptian engineer who works at a Kuwaiti company.”
2. تعرفت على صديقة تدرس العلوم السياسية في جامعتي.
“I met a friend who studies political sciences at my university.”
3. أنت الموظف الجديد ومكتبك بجانب مكتبي.
“You are the new employee and your desk next to mine.”
4. رأيت الولد الصغير وهو يلعب الكرة مع صديقه.
“I saw the little boy, and he was playing ball with his friend.”
5. هذا هو الكتاب الشيق الذي ألفه الكاتب العربي المعروف.
“This is the interesting book written by the famous Arab writer.”
Posted by Aziza
Today is the last day of the month of Ramadan (رمضان), the best and most important month for Muslims. At the end of the holy month of fasting (الصوم) and worship (العبادة), Muslims have a special feast called (عيد الفطر). It marks the end of Ramadan and lasts for 3 days. It starts on the first day of Shawwal (شوال), and lasts until day 3.
The Eid is celebrated in many ways. It has special ceremonies, most importantly the Eid prayer (صلاة العيد) which is a special prayer on the morning of the first day of the feast. It includes a religious speech that usually deals with the merits of the month of Ramadan and the joy of the feast. This prayer ends in special loud prayer to praise God called (تكبيرة العيد), shown in the link below.
Another special tradition for the feast is to give money and food to the poor (زكاة العيد). This must be given before the end of the first day of the feast to make sure that everyone share and enjoy the feast.
The feast has social traditions, as family members visit each other and exchange presents and children are given money (العيدية) to buy presents of their choice. Young people enjoy this occasion very much. Most young people get new clothes for the feast, and they wear them on the first day. They go out together and enjoy themselves. Cinemas show new movies and television stations broadcast special programs.
As for food, mothers bake all sorts of lovely biscuits and cookies (كعك العيد). There is nothing like mother’s home-made biscuits with warm tea for breakfast on the first day of the feast. My mother has baked 3 varieties for me this year, and they are absolutely delicious! I can’t wait for tomorrow morning!
كل عام وانتم بخير!
Posted by Aziza
In this post, I give some vocabulary items and expressions that one can use to talk about one’s room. Words between brackets are the plurals. Some of these words are used in sentences below:
|
Room
|
غرفة (غرف)
|
|
Bedroom
|
غرفة نوم
|
|
Window
|
نافذة (نوافذ)
|
|
Door
|
باب (أبواب)
|
|
Floor
|
أرضية (أرضيات)
|
|
Wall
|
حائط (حوائط)
|
|
Ceiling
|
سقف (أسقف)
|
|
Carpet
|
سجادة (سجاجيد)
|
|
Curtain
|
ستار (ستائر)
|
|
Bed
|
سرير (أسِرّة)
|
|
Chair
|
كرسي (كراسي)
|
|
Desk
|
مكتب (مكاتب)
|
|
Table
|
طاولة (طاولات)
|
|
Wardrobe
|
دولاب (دواليب)
|
|
Cupboard /cabinet
|
خزانة
|
|
Television
|
تليفزيون
|
|
Computer
|
كمبيوتر
|
|
Clothes
|
ملابس
|
|
Pillow
|
وسادة (وسائد)
|
|
Mattress
|
مرتبة (مراتب)
|
|
Shelf
|
رف (أرفف)
|
|
Tooth brush
|
فرشاة أسنان
|
|
Tooth paste
|
معجون أسنان
|
غرفتي صغيرة وسريري كبير.
“My room is small and my bed is big.”
طلبت مني أمي أن أرتب دولابي.
“My mother asked me to tidy up my wardrobe.”
غرفتك بها نافذتان تطلان على الشارع.
“Your room has 2 windows overlooking the street.”
It should be noted that these words can have colloquial counterparts that may vary from one dialect to another, e.g. pillow in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic is (مخدة).
